Bowsy
Bowsy
In Brief
In the first chapter Mulligan's mocking, playful, imitative voice is filled not only with many echoes of upper-crust British speech ("old chap," "spiffing," "dreadful," "beastly"), but also with many scruffier idioms particular to Dublin and Ireland. Some of his words—"scutter," "breeks," "bowsy," "mosey"—require annotation for non-natives.
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After frowning "at the lather on his razorblade," Mulligan
utters an obscure imprecation: "— Scutter! he
cried thickly." According to Kiberd, in Dublin slang it is "a
dismissive term; it means a watery stool." Slote cites a
definition in the OED: "a variant of squitter, 'to
have diarrhoea.'" Just before grabbing Stephen's
handkerchief out of his pocket, then, Mulligan seems to be
saying something like, "Would you look at all this shit on my
razor!"
A little later, he says of the black "secondhand breeks"
(dialectical for breeches, britches, trousers, pants) that he
has somehow obtained for Stephen, "God knows what poxy bowsy
left them off." In Dublin slang a bowsy (bowsie, bowsey) is a
disreputable, ill-behaved, good-for-nothing male. Gifford
cites one Gerry O'Flaherty, quoted in a book titled Dublin
(1983) as saying that a bowsie is "an unemployed layabout who
loves nothing better than to shout abusive remarks, usually of
a sexual nature, after passing girls." Imagining this lout
also to have been disease-ridden is hardly calculated to make
the recipient of the clothes feel comfortable in them.
When Mulligan tries to coax Stephen down from the parapet to have breakfast with Haines, he says: "Dedalus, come down, like a good mosey." Kiberd identifies this as Dublin slang for a wanderer, "often used as a term of endearment." The word can have other meanings, however. Gifford suggests "Someone who strolls slowly or shuffles"—the familiar American meaning, which would make the summons somewhat less friendly. Slote cites a definition in the English Dialect Dictionary, "Idiot or fool," which would remove all affection.
